SCMEP president dies after bout with COVID-19.

Chuck Spangler, CEO and president of the South Carolina Manufacturing Extension Partnership, succumbed to complications of COVID-19 on Friday at a North Carolina hospital.

Carl Maynard Spangler III, a North Carolina native and resident of Greer, was 58 years old.

In his role at the helm of SCMEP, Spangler was a workhorse on what elected officials and economic developers call Team South Carolina those public and private players who advance business in the state. On that team, Spangler's organization had a far-reaching impact fueled by its leader's enthusiasm for the mission: "Helping South Carolina companies grow."

And Palmetto State companies did grow. An independent analysis put SCMEP's economic impact on the state at $3 billion in 2020, according to the organization's website. That included $2.5 billion in retained sales, $165 million in cost savings, $250 million in new investments and $90 million in new sales. SCMEP served 400 manufacturers, creating 641 jobs and retaining 6,458.

Beyond the numbers, according to some of the people who worked with him, Spangler was a big man with a servant's heart and a deft touch, a leader who motivated his staff to serve a cause, to get results and to leave clients better off.

"Physically he was a brawny kind of guy, but it didn't take you long to figure out that he had this hulking status, but that belied a very quiet, humble manner in which he carried himself and how he dealt with people," said Susie Shannon, president and CEO of the S.C. Council on Competitiveness. "You know, some people talk a lot about how they care for business or industry, for companies, for people, but you really learn more about people in seeing what they actually do, and it was clear that Chuck cared about South Carolina companies, South Carolina companies, South Carolina companies. I mean his whole mission and his life's work was around making companies more successful."

Danny Johnson Jr., who rotated off chairmanship of the SCMEP board of directors at about the same time Spangler contracted the coronavirus, said his friend's death is "a tremendous loss for this state."

"This is...